Typology of Carsharing Members

Carsharing systems are the focus of an increasing number of researches. In addition to gaining new members every week, new carsharing systems are being launched around the Globe. In Montreal, carsharing in now part of the transportation strategies to alleviate congestion and contribute to the overall aim of reducing the dependency towards the individual car. Thanks to a continuous partnership with Communauto, the Quebec carsharing operator, it has been possible, in the recent years, to provide quantitative assessment of various aspects of the system, both regarding supply and demand. This paper builds on these previous researches and concentrates on the systematic analysis of the behaviors of members, in terms of transactions and kilometers travelled. Data mining techniques are used to classify members according to various temporal units expressing their behaviors in order to propose a typology. Results show that, with respect to frequency of use, there are two main types of carsharing members in Montreal, high frequency users (≈ 2.2 transactions per week) and low frequency users (≈ 0.4 transactions per week), the later gathering 86% of the members. Results also show, still based on frequency, that there are five types of weekly patterns and that members have a dominant weekly pattern that is, in average, representative of 62% of their weeks. This study shows that weekly patterns change namely during the holiday periods (summer months, December-January). With respect to weekly distance travelled by members, two clusters are also identified, one gathering 87% of the members with an average of 14.3 km travelled per week and the other ones related to higher averages (76.8 km per week). Other classifications are discussed.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Morency, Catherine
  • Trepanier, Martin
  • Agard, Bruno
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2011-1-23 to 2011-1-27
• Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 14p
• Monograph Title: TRB 90th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data mining; Membership organizations; Public transit; Strategic planning; Traffic congestion; Travel behavior; Travel modes; Travel patterns; Vehicle sharing
• Uncontrolled Terms: Automobile dependence
• Geographic Terms: Montreal (Canada)
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01333028
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 11-1236
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 21 2011 2:13PM